Been using AutoCad for many years and lately had to find a sub for a Win10 PC.
Been trying LibreCAD, which in the beginning looked like a decent substitute, but even consulting the manual, remains very difficult to find even simple operations??
Anyone offer a decent alternative?

 

hello,

how about freecad?
https://www.freecad.org/

it seems to be sponsored by kicad.

bertus

 

i used to work a lot with AutoCad and tried to find alternative as well. in the past DraftSight was offered as cost free alternative for personal use. one thing nice about it is that it does have the AutoCad look and feel. I think they changed that to 30 day trial and some $300 for Pro version.

 

I use Fusion360 on a free non-commercial lisence.

 

I use ProgeCAD, which is an AutoCAD clone. It's pretty decent even in 3D. Its renders suck, though ...

 

Thanks all, I will try a few out.

 

Qcad works like Acad. I locate the pads and location holes and save,
I print the pads I draw freehand traces on paper connecting the pads. a reverse image used for double sided.
The freehand images are used as a reference to complete the Qcad.
Tracing on top of a layer such as a photo or scan is possible.
Accurate distance on X and Y axis, use Qcad to measure between the 4 location holes.
A well scaled image gives you confidence that the gerber will have accurate positioning.

I use a pencil and eraser, invest in good eraser. Below example probably kicad.
To compare you can find complete files of a professional PCBs by searching pcbway shared projects.
I would like to see even more contributed educational PCBs made available for those who like to build and learn circuits.

If you have a simulation of an amplifier circuit for example and want to test out a transistor in circuit. Connect it to another circuit like RCL or Colpitts.
You could dial in resistor values into this test board. measure I & V test points, gain ect, try different transistors without desoldering components.
Because this pcb is small in size the cost is 10 boards is $5 USD. The board has ground plane and entry vias that worth learning.
AAC has very good help for hobbyist if they can explain or show the issue. At any level using a test jig and seeing results is fun.
A professional board, all the files and a practical value to learn or structure requirements for pcb order.
Single BJT Amp Test Bed - Share Project - PCBWay

 

OnShape.com...

Browser based so works on anything. Written by a team that used to do SolidWorks so quite similar. Its free, though your projects are publicly visible.